Domestic benchmarks rose to a three-week high on Friday, lifted by financial and metal companies, while a slump in oil prices and news of Indian and Chinese troops disengaging from the western Himalayan area buoyed investor sentiment.

The NSE Nifty 50 index was up 0.5 per cent at 17,888.25, while the S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.51 per cent to 59,991.07. Both indexes are on track for gains of over two per cent for the week.

Aiding sentiment was news that Indian and Chinese troops had begun disengaging from the Gogra-Hotsprings border area in the western Himalayas, two years after clashes at the frontier strained diplomatic ties.

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Meanwhile, worries of central banks' aggressive rate hikes and China's Covid-19 curbs have hit oil prices hard. India, the world's third-largest importer of oil, benefits from a fall in prices as it brings down imported inflation.

The Nifty Bank index and the Nifty Metal index rose 0.9 per cent and 1.4 per cent, respectively.

Rice producers, however, slid after India banned exports of broken rice and imposed a 20 per cent duty on overseas sale of various grades, as the world's biggest exporter of the grain tries to augment supplies and calm local prices.

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